Measure of a Hero
by EpicFail236
Summary: See, Finn, that's the difference between you and I. You are a true hero, a Champion, whereas I was created to be a weapon, a tool to be used and then discarded when no longer required.
1. A prelude

Weapons of war.

chapter 1: a sudden introduction.

The midday sun shone warm over all the kingdoms of Ooo, reflecting off the ponds and rivers and casting dancing shadows in the leaves of the forest. The small creatures flitting through the brush making their typical sounds, children laughing and dancing in the warm weather. Even the ice king is taking it easy today, taking an unusual day off from his typical role of mischief maker to bask in the sun that warmed his kingdom to just inches below freezing. Currently he was lounging in a beach chair wearing a bathing suit that could honestly make a statistical majority of censors wet themselves in terror, sipping on a iced tea provided by Gunther.

"*sigh* this is the life, isn't it buddy?"

the penguin made a few barking sounds that, though unintelligible to most listeners and fiction readers, seemed to make perfect sense to the crazy wizard.

"heh, no kidding. the only thing missing is a couple of friends or maybe a princess to - sweet gravy what's that?" the wizards usual obsessive train of thought was suddenly derailed as the sun suddenly dims. The wizard lifts off his sunglasses to stare at the sight before him.

"... uh, Gunther, are you seeing what I'm seeing, or are my crazy wizard eyes acting up on me again?"

Gunther nods affirmatively with a rather nervous squack.

"this probably isn't good." he replies as he turns around to head back inside. "I should probably take a closer look."

Behind him, Gunther stands rooted to the spot, staring at the black smoke rising in a vast cloud, large enough to dim the bright sunlight.

smoke that was coming from the direction of the Candy Kingdom.

"I hope everyone's alright..."

It was perhaps ironic that the thought that was going through Bonnibel Bubblegum's mind at that pointwas the thought that she really would rather be kidnapped by the ice king than be where she was at the moment. Of course at that point she would probably not have to worry about the embarrassment that a thought like that, as they all were probably going to die horribly in a few minutes anyway.

She probably should have seen this coming. in the last few months, attacks by the various villains vexing the kingdoms of Ooo have been increasing in viciousness and vigour, however each attack has been rebuffed in typical fashion by the kingdom's resident heroes, Jake and Finn. looking over the ruined battlefield that used to be the palace grounds, her eyes sought her two guardians, only to find them right in the thick of it. Jake and Finn were standing their ground before the tower doors, back to back surrounded by at least a dozen whywolves, along with several other creatures of evil origins. the chances of all these creatures banding together was infentesimal, or so she and the other royals had assumed over the years. there was too much infighting between the different factions to allow that, they assumed.

"no chance in the night-o-sphere they said" she grumbled to noone in particular as she tossed a piece of rubble over the balcony onto the head of an unsuspecting whywolf, knocking him out cold.

"nice shot PB!" Jake cried as he swung a comically oversized right hook at a pair of beasts, sending them across the lawn.

"yeah, mind sending a bit of that rocky love my way?" hollered Finn as he liberated a whywolf of his clawing arm. jokers to the last those two, the princess thought. her bemusement turned to horror though, as he saw Finn take another hit, this time to his sword arm. Jake had him in his arms and over the fray before his sword hit the grass, backing the two of them up against the doors. in a defensive position. as the beasts closed in on the wounded heroes, the princess was torn from the fight by a scream beside her, and turned to find peppermint butler suspended by his leg from the claw of another one of the beasts, his battle cries and sword swings rather innefective as the beast held him out at arms length, a throaty chuckle escaping from his mouth. No sooner had this happened though, than the beast put an end to his struggles, dashing him against the wall and deftly tossing him over the balcony to the grounds below. Inwardly, the princess cried out for the loss of such a dear comrade and friend, but outwardly she schooled her features and turned to face the killer in front of her. Over the last months, a rather exubherant Finn had taken time to teach her some level of self defense, and she now hoped that it was enough to at least buy her some time against the beast advancing in front of her.

draw, slice, cut back, slide away, repeat. Her thin rapier wasnt enough to actually defeat a beast like this, but it was enough to keep him at arms length, and for now that was the best she can do.

"Come on, princess, this fight is useless, and you know it" the beast taunted, taking a swing that she just barely rolled away from. "It would be so much easier if you just gave in. Your armies are gone, and your hero cannot help you now."

"I will not yield to you, and I will not lose!" the princess cried, ducking under another swing and slicing across the wolf's belly, causing him to grunt in pain. The momentary respite was not enough however, as the beast stepped forward and swiped out, knocking the sword out of her hand and sent it spinning away, only to be buried in a wall across the courtyard.

"Enough of this you prissy royal." he growled, backhanding the young woman and knocking her to the ground.

"PRINCESS, NO!"

Finn and Jake had the unfortunate pleasure of having an excellent observation point for the scuffle on the balcony, while being entirely unable to assist, as they both were rather distracted by their own fights. When he saw the princess take the blow, he saw red.

In the intervening years since his last, and admittedly embarassing, attempt to win PBs heart, and after some surprisingly heartfelt advice from his brother in arms Jake, Finn had decided that he needed to step back from the crush he had for the princess, and the feelings he felt for the Flame Princess solidified the fact in his mind that, though he really did love PB, it wasnt /that/ type of love. Instead, he realized that she represented the best qualities of a sister and best friend all rolled into one nice package. Surprisingly enough, with this revelation in his mind, it became significantly easier to spend time with the princess, even going so far as to invite her on one or two of the less dangerous quests as a "heroine in training," while PB tried (in some cases unsuccessfully) to bring the young human up to speed in his non-hero-related educational pursuits. This sisterly bond, however, certainly didnt inhibit the protective feelings he felt for the soverign of the Candy Kingdom. This strike against the princess frayed his last nerve. It was time to get serious!

In his rage he began to push forward, fighting against the arms now holding down, and twice breaking free and running to the keep doors, only to be stopped when even more obstacles got in his path, held him down. His comic insults now replaced by inarticulate cries of rage as he struggled in vain to get up to the balcony.

The lead whywolf had by this time taken the princess by the neck and had hauled her to her feet. A cruel smile on his face, he lifted her up just slightly, her weight now only being supported by her toes and his huge hand. She refused to cry out, meeting his amused look with a hard stare.

"Interesting, isnt it princess, that after all this time, and after so many battles, that all it took was a single assult to bring your kingdom to its knees. You were ill prepared for this, it seems. And for that..." he smiled as he raised his fist as her eyes widened in fear ".. you will pay the price."

Finn screames in rage, struggling against his holders.

Jake scrambles across the courtyard fighting off the beasts in an attempt to assist Finn.

The princess readies herself for the blow, knowing this is the end of this fight. Her last thoughts are simply "I'm sorry, Jake, Finn... everyone. I've failed..."

*Thunk*

A scream cuts the air. The princess falls to the stone, and blinks. The blow never connected. She looks up to find the beast clutching his arm, a long thin arrow cleanly cut through the forearm, and embedded into the wall. He stumbles back with a howl, clutching his newly injured arm, blood running down the shaft of the arrow. He looks up at the princess and out at his followers.

"who did that?" he demanded, "find them, bring them to me! So help me, I will rip them apart."

Finn was confused as well. Though his work with the sword was his forte, he often used a crossbow to strike at certain beasties, especially before the family demon-blood coated sword became such a staple in his arsenal. That sort of shot was quite difficult even at his range, but he cant see where that shot could have come from except for a tower along the castle... walls...

The shooter lowered his bow and took a flying leap from the wall, coming to a rest on the opposite end of the courtyard. Immediately, the whywolves charged towards his landing point, intending to drag this horrible offence to evil everywhere to some sort of demise. The target of their rage... fiddled with a box on his hip.

*click* - /current track: Bad by Michael Jackson/ "... no"

the whywolves completely abandon Finn, who stands up and turns to face the new player on the field... of battle.

*click* /current track: Always by Erasue/ ".. sweet Glob no"

the whywolves swarm past Jake, who calls out "Hey dude, watch out!"

*click* /current track: Electioneering by Radiohead/ "There we go!"

The figure stood and raised his bow again, quickly notching a single arrow and took aim at the charging horde. A quick release and the front whywolf fell to the ground. Finn was stunned at his speed, and before the whywolves had gotten within reach, he had felled three more. The beasts started to pile upon the stranger, who quickly leaped up over the crowd and landed near the local heroes.

"Hey, kid, you good to go?" Finn could only blink at the stranger for a second, taking in his... well his lack of features. his face was covered by a mask of some kind, a white mask with glowing green eyes and a smirk. He was confused as to what the man meant, until he noticed the sword in his extended hand, PBs rapier. Finn grinned as he took the sword and stood, grimacing a bit as his injured shoulder twinged a bit. He gave the sword a quick test swing, and found he was at least able to fight with it, probably given it was so much lighter than his usual broadsword. He turned back to the stranger, who apparently was waiting for a response, though his face was unchanged, that same smirk in place. Finn stood and turned towards the advancing horde, sword up and ready. Jake stretched up beside his best bud and best brother, and Finn gave him a soft punch in the shoulder.

"Oh yeah, its butt whoopin time."

The tide of battle turned swiftly after that. A newly exhuberant Finn took to laying the smack down on the wolves with extreme prejudice, backed by an equaly impressive Jake. The sword making precision strikes to the closest ones, while Jakes massive blows taking out wide swaths of adversaries, throwing them across the courtyard. Anytime a beast would get a bit too close, a flying arrow would strike down a target, only for its shooter to leap away, leading several of the whywolves on a merry chase across the courtyard. All the while, the smirk never left the mask, and at times the stranger would even be heard singing along to the music coming from the strange box on his waist. Eventually, the three fighters reached the gate again, this time guarded by a whywolf that was rather large, twice as large, in fact, than the ones that were now decorating the lawn. Finn immediately stepped forward to fight the beast, but an arm stopped him.

"Naw, hero. This one's mine, Ill move him, you get up that tower, the arrow won't keep that one down for long, and you have a princess to protect."

"But dude, you only got one arrow left!" Finn replied.

"Yeah, bro you sure you-whaaaaa?" Jake turned to the stranger to find that the mask had changed. Gone was the smirk, instead replaced by a rather vicious tooth filled grimace, complete with glowing red eyes. "woah, creepy dude"

The stranger paid him no mind though instead turned his back to the heroes, saying "Arrows aint all I got." shouldering his bow and opening his right hand. Finn had to blink as, out of nowhere, a flame lit in his glove, steadily growing in size to a softball sized flame. Finn could only describe it in one word.

"Math, bro. totally math."

"Hnn."

as Jake guided a still stunned Finn around and towards the doors. He wasn't about to look a gift rainicorn in the mouth, cept maybe his lady. Before hey took off towards the door, he asked "whats your name dude?"

The stranger turned around, the grimace replaced again by the smirk , throwing Jake for a loop again.

"While the mask is on, call me Shade" And with that, he whirled around and pitched the fireball towards the beast, and Jake and Finn hurried up to the balcony where PB was still fighting off the Whywolf leader.

Bonnibel, of course, was having her own fun upstairs already, having realized that as long as the abomination's arm was pinned to the wall, her safety was at least temporarily intact. She was therefore spending copious amounts of energy in distracting the beast from rectifying his current situation. While wary enough to assume his state didnt mean that he couldnt still do her harm while she was within arms reach, she had settled with simply hurling anything nearby that wasnt tied down in his direction. A clumsy method of distraction, she thought, but effective enough given the circumstances, as she hurtled a ceremonial vase in its direction, striking it in the back of the head while it was again attempting to dig out the projectile from its arm.

"You know princess, this is getting really old" the whybeast grunted as he dodged various pieces of shrapnel from the throne room that the princess had decided would be effective at slowing down the beast again.

"I," the princess retorted, throwing another brick "dont care! I dont care if I have to take the castle apart! I wont. let. you win!" though she knew as well has he, that her efforts were a delaying tactic, and nothing more. The whywolf had another trick up his sleeve though.

"They won't be coming, you know. Even if they manage to get past the rest of the pack, they have to face my own brother. Even Billy himself wa-"

"Billlyyyyyy!"

"... was hard pressed to drive back the great one."

The princess did falter at this statement. The tale of Billy versus the great one was legendary, and the crater left by the mighty clash was one of the largest left that wasnt created by a remnant of the great mushroom war. If he was telling the truth...

The moment of hesitation was all that the beast needed as he ripped the arrow out of the wall and his arm with a whine. He then proceeded to turn towards the princess, moving slowly towards her, his ever-wide grin showing even more teeth than before.

"There's nothing you, or your precious hero can do to stop this. The candy kingdom is going to fall, one way-"

he lowers himself into a crouch.

"-or-"

PB backs into a corner of the balcony, eyes wide.

"ANOTHER!"

"NO!"

What Bonnibel had assumed was her demise was suddenly interupted by the cry of a sixteen year old, rather unlikely, hero intercepting a whywolf mid-flight with a shoulder to the midsection. The beast, caught completely off guard, stumbled backwards barely managing to catch himself from tumbling over the balcony, only to face a humorously enlarged hand with its finger prepared to strike.

"Not today it wont" came Jakes voice, and with a simple flick of a human-sized finger, the beast tumbled over the baclony railing into the grounds below.

PB blinked at his hero for a moment, then slowly fell to her knees, leaning back against the palace walls. Finn headed over to the balcony and looked over the edge, and called out "Hey, Shade! Up here! you can head up thewhhaaaa?" His apparent directions were unecessary as the forementioned man had simply leapt up and over the balcony and landed, carrying the whywolf leader in his hand. Upon landing he threw the beast to the stone floor and leaned down to its face, the mask in the same dark snarl Jake had seen earlier. The conversation between the mask and his target was short and to the point.

"You lost here. You werent meant to win."

"You know nothing of what is to come, none of you heroes do-" he was cut off by a swift kick to the ribs.

"See, thats the real trick isn't it. Well guess what, monster? The game has changed. You get to be the one to tell your boss, too. Isnt that exciting? Just the thought of it makes me all tingly inside." Shade then picked up the beast again and walked him over to the balcony edge, hanging him over the railings.

"You go back to your boss, and tell him that he isnt only dealing with heroes anymore. Bet his reaction will be... exciting. Now get out of my sight." and with that, he simply dropped the beast over the railing. Finn and Jake ran up to see, and found that the wolf was already scrambling across the courtyard, another whywolf slowly staggering in that direction as well. Without a word, Shade raised his bow and took aim, and before Finn could even blink, launched his arrow across the grounds, killing the remaining straggler as his leader continued heading for the exit. Finn could only stand there and look out at the fallen body. Why bust someones chops when they're already running with their tail between their legs (literally in this case)? The thought baffled Finn, and apparently upset Jake, who after recovering from shock immediately called out Shade on his uncool move. However the guy in question had already turned away from the balcony and was heading over to the princess. Finn blinked away his shock, and quickly headed over to see if his sister from another Gumball was alright.

Shade knelt down next to the princess and nudged her from her shocked state. She blinked for a moment, then turned and looked at Shade, saying "I suppose I have you to thank, kind sir, for assisting in the defence of our kingdom today."

Shade simply responded by reaching up to his face, and with a deft motion, pulling off his mask.

"Oh, Bonnie. Only you can go from viking to princess in the blink of an eye, and get both sides so well, might I add.

Finn, inconspicuously looking PB over for any serious injuries, missed the fact that Shade had taken off his mask, but he couldnt miss the changes to her face when Shade spoke. Being a sixteen year old dude, and despite the fact that he had attended (or suffered through, as Jake had so elequently put it) /sensitivity training/ for several weeks by PB and a couple of the other princesses who were rather sick of his thick-headedness, he wasn't quite able to understand all of it though. He saw a look like she was remembering something, then she did remember it, then she totally didnt like what she remembered, then she kinda did, then there was some look that was all like he didnt know, then it was all gone, and all that was left was the look PB used when addressing her subjects. Huh, that was odd.

Suddenly Bubblegum stood up and turned to look out over the balcony. Finn was all confused. What was up with PB?

"I believe I heard you go by the name Shade, correct sir?" she said in a very formal tone. Shade blinked, then sighed a bit, and replied.

"That is correct, milady"

"Then Shade, you are to be commended for your actions today. I must meet with you later to properly recognize your services to this kingdom, but for now, as you may expect, I have many things to attend to. You need a place to stay until such time, I assume?"

"I can stay wherever milady wishes."

"Then you will stay with the knights and heros of our kingdom until a suitable accomodation can be found for you." Upon this, she turned her gaze back to Finn, her usual smile in place for him, which eased his mind just a bit. "Thank you again Finn, Jake, you have saved our kingdom again. May I ask that you escort our guest to your treehouse and allow him to stay with you until such time as we are able to provide him his own residence?"

Jake replied to this "Of course, princess, we'll get him setup right after we help you-"

"No!" the princess replied, a bit too quickly in Finn's estimation. She softened her next words a bit "you have already done more than enough for this kingdom, you two. Let us do the cleanup this time, the two of you take Shade and get some rest."

This time shade spoke up his eyes to the ground. "Milady, I do not wish to be a bother to anyone here, and can stay-"

"I will have nothing of the sort happening here, sir. After all, we do owe you a debt, and I intend to honor it." This time, Shade's sigh was more audible, as he stood up and bowed towards the princess.

"Of course, milady. As you wish." Finn made to interrupt, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder and Shade's small nod. He didnt really want to skip this conversation, but it seemed Shade knew what he was talking about, and he did actually have some quantity of subtlety (however minute it may be) so he held his tounge for now. And with that they turned and headed for the stairwell. As he was leaving, PB called out once more.

"hey Finn!"

"Yeah PB?"

a genuine smile is shared between the two of them.

"Thanks, bro."

"No problem, sis."

And just like that, he was gone. Shade went and collected his pack from where he had left it upon the wall while Finn went and collected his sword. Jake followed along, while eyeing the new player suspiciously. The unmasked shade was certianly less intimidating looking, he thought. Though the smirk was pretty much the same, the lack of glowing eyes definitely helps reduce the creepy factor. But still something didnt quite settle right, and its definitely not the burritos he had for lunch. PB looked like she knew this guy, and even more, that she didnt quite like him. He slays evil, yeah, but why take out the wolf that was running away?

A/N: Know things are slow here, real life totally has been in my way for forever. But now, I finally am taking some well deserved vacation. Actually writing most of this chapter on a plane. The Prodigy Trilogy will totally be continued as well, but this was in my head, and needed to come out before I could do any more writing more on that. Expect updates intermittently on both for a while, with the next two chapters of Prodigy coming this week as well.

This one obviously has an OC, and will totally be Finn/FP. I did like the way the season opener left their odd little relationship at the end, and it gave me some ideas that I totally intend to work into the next couple of chapters. Again, drama will abound, though this time there will be less direct smut and more implied smut I think. Not that youve read any of my smut yet.

Thanks to the listeners, and comment if you hate it, or if you dont!

/EF/


	2. Coming home

Standard disclaimers apply, professional driver on a closed course, et cetera.

Chapter 2

The walk back from the candy kingdom to the brothers' domicile was mostly tame, with Shade (who had replaced his mask not long after speaking to the princess) walking off to the side from our heroes, his mask in place with a much more pleasant grin, humming a tune that neither Finn nor Jake could completely place. Jake was lost in his own thoughts, casting occasional glances towards their new companion. He was sure that that creepy mask was looking in his direction before, but every time he glances over, he's a few paces to their right, walking and humming away. He shivered as he turned back forward and continued the march towards their home.

"Its all about keeping people around you on their toes" came the sudden soft voice from right behind him, causing Jake to squeal and hop into Finn's arms.

"Don't do that, man!" he cried as Finn struggled to remain standing under Jake's sudden additional weight, chuckling to himself.

"Dude, Shade, that's some killer ninja silence skills you got."

Shade merely passed a hand in front of his mask, the grin turning into an amused smirk. "It's all in observation and timing. Everybody can move silently enough. You just have to know when to do so. You act all quiet and normal until no one suspects a thing then... Wham!" he said, accentuating the statement by tossing a rock at a nearby tree with enough force to shake an apple or two off the branches, which he deftly caught and tossed to his companions. Jake could only blink as the apple flew towards his face, while Finns hero reflexes quickly took control as he reached out to catch the apples in mid-flight, unceremoniously dropping Jake on the ground in order to free his hands to do so.

"Dude, you so have to teach us this stuff! You're gonna be hanging around for a while, right? Cause I always like to learn new hero-ing moves and stuff. Jake does too, even though he can be a wuss, he's really awesome in a fight, and can totally kick some baddy butt and..." the beginnings of his ramble was cut off by a hearty laugh from Shade, as he reached down to help Jake up off the ground.

"Don't worry, hero, there's plenty of time for schoolin', but for now, you heard the Princess. Tonight we chillax for a while. Now, lets get to this treehouse, maybe find something to eat. killin' villains always tends to work me up an appetite."

The rest of the walk back was filled with small chatter, and Finn and Jake pointing out small landmarks along the way and telling stories of various heroic deeds performed, much to Shade's amusement. Eventually, as the sun was mostly set and the stars were beginning to shine, the treehouse neared. Finn was behind Jake and Shade, who seemed to be slowly growing on each other, chatting about various foods they had eaten over their journey, when Shade paused for a moment at the hilltop, tilted his head to one side, and asked out loud to no one in particular:

"Is that your treehouse there?"

"Yep" Jake replied. "Home sweet home."

"Huh. Why is part of it on fire?"

Immediately both Shade and Jake were knocked to the side as Finn sprinted between them towards the house, yelling back quickly "Gotta run guys, see you there in a bit!"

Shade paused for a moment. Then turned to Jake, a puzzled face on his mask.

"What was that all about?"

"Forget about it, man, that's just FP."

"FP?"

"The Flame Princess. Finn and her have a bit of a thing going on. She probably caught wind of the fight today and swung by the treehouse to wait for Finn. She'll probably yell at him for something or other, then kiss him. They got some weird... thing... going on. Eh."

Shade stood up and turned towards the rapidly shrinking figure moving towards the treehouse. "Flame Princess... a Fire elemental? Aren't they typically more on the evil, destructive side of things rather than the lovin' hero side of things?

"Yeah, her dad is one nasty dude. But she isn't, not really anyway. They make each other happy, though. Didn't think it would last very long, but there you go."

"Everyone deserves a chance at happiness, Jake." Jake looked up to see shade with a rather somber expression on, looking towards the treehouse. After a moment, he stepped forward again on the path, heading towards the treehouse. "Come on, lets go find some food."

== OO 00 - - 00 OO ==

Finn practically sprinted the entire length of the valley leading up to the treehouse, quickly spotting his lady in their usual spot on dry evenings, atop the canopy in a little spot Finn had carved out just for them. Foregoing running through the house, the limber hero used the momentum from his run to start catapulting up the branches of the tree, quickly ascending to the highest point and leaping up onto the top, only to find himself standing toe to toe with his goal. and she didn't look very happy. For a moment they stood there looking into each others eyes, nervous embarrassment meeting stern anger. Her words were soft when she spoke, but the glow in her eyes belied the tone in her voice.

"You went anyway."

"Yes."

"Even though I told you it would be trouble. That it wasn't going to be like the last time you dealt with them."

"yeah." he replied, scratching the back of his neck nervously. He couldn't look away from those eyes. "You were right, it was bad. If we hadn't stepped in, it would have been really bad."

For a moment they just stood there. Then it happened, just a slight narrowing of her eyes were all the notice he had, before a sharp stinging, and slight burning sensation, came out from his right cheek, as her palm connected in a slap.

"That's for leaving, hero."

He turned his head back towards her, looking her in the eyes again.

"You knew I had to, FP. Its what the hero does."

Another moment, another narrowing of her eyes. He won't brace for the blow, because he knows, in some way, he deserves it. He doesn't really want to worry her, but he's gotta be a hero.

Instead of another slap though, he got something different. She moved quickly, closed the gap between their faces and places a soft, slow kiss on his lips. He felt his eyes close, and for a moment, everything was just the two of them. When she pulled away after just a moment, the feeling of her lips on his was still there, tingling, kind of like a sunburn, but one that you totally would be okay with getting.

"That's for coming back to me, hero."

and then she wrapped her arms around him in a gentle hug. Unfortunately, though this would normally be quite radical, it also brought into sharp reality the fact that he just recently had been on the receiving end of some nasty beat downs, and he had to grimace a bit as his arm twinged sharply. FP stepped back for a moment, concerned that she had burned him, but looking at him immediately grabbing his sword arm, and trailing down to the cut on his arm, her expression immediately turned to concern.

"Oh my glob, Finn, you're hurt!"

Finn immediately tried to hide his injury stammering that it was no big deal, but FP reached out and took his wrist gently, exposing the cut along his arm. She looked at it critically, then released it, speaking to him in a serious voice, "I think I know how to fix this, Finn. hold it still and brace yourself" Finn nodded and clenched his fist. The princess flared her hand up slightly, creating a small flame on her fingertips, which she slowly reached down and passed it over the cut, sealing the wound carefully. Finn, for his part, looked on in a mixture of pain and awe as he saw her cauterize a cut that would have probably had to have been treated for friggin' ever if he had to call doctor princess or some other medicine nerd. When she was done, and the pain had subsided a bit he tentatively moved his arm around a bit, to find that the wound was pretty much completely closed.

"Algebraic, FP! Its like, all cool now, barely hurts too! and its a wicked scar."

"Yeah, I kind of like it." she replied, now running her (relatively) cool finger over the scar, causing Finn to shiver a bit. "Its like I've marked you for my very own, now."

Finn, for his part, blushed at her choice of words. He knew that he totally like-liked the flame princess, regardless of their differences, and may even _like_ like-like her (he refused to say the word love, partly cause he was a dude, and also cause he didn't want to go there unless he was really sure she was totally down with that too). He also knew that he shouldn't keep all his gushy feely stuff all in the inside, so he just went with his gut, and leaned over and placed a kiss on her cheek, whispering in her ear. "you're a pretty radical girl to belong to, FP." He then promptly was forced to step back as a wave of heat came off her the likes of which he didn't often feel, except when she was totally pissed when he did something "guy like" (Finn still was trying to figure out what exactly constituted doing anger causing guy like things. He asked Jake, who merely shrugged and said "who knows man? Women.") It was only the happy expression on her face that told him that he wasn't in serious trouble. When she finally calmed down after a moment, he sidled up next to her, took her hand, and sat down with her for a bit, looking up at the stars in a comfortable silence. The air slowly got cooler as the evening wore on, and FP simply snuggled closer to Finn (to be sure he stayed warm, of course. No other reason at all)

They sat there until the sun was completely gone, and Finn could smell the food that Jake and... suddenly Finn remembered that they had another guest in the house. He nudged his companion in the shoulder and said. "oh yeah, FP, I totally forgot, we got some help in whupin' the whywolves' butts today, and he totally came by for dinner. He's a pretty radical dude, we should go down and meet him."

Flame Princess, for her part, didn't really want either of them to leave the spot they were in for a while, but her sense of decorum made her relent, at least to meet this new stranger. Besides, if Finn found him this interesting, he probably would be someone worth meeting. Reluctantly, he let Finn help her to her feet, and climbed back down into the treehouse, where dinner was waiting for the hero and the elemental.

== OO 00 - - 00 OO ==

While the couple was upstairs watching the sunset, the dog and the man in the mask finished their journey to the treehouse, and Jake led Shade into their home with a flourish.

"I'd give you the tour now, but I think we all would rather I get food ready. You got a problem with burritos?"

Shade's mask remained unchanged, he just shook his head from side to side. "Sounds okay to me. What you fill them with?"

Jake turned to the cupboards, pulling out various food items "eh, little of this little of that. Why, you got something you don't eat?" he turned to find Shade looking at him, his mask's smirk replaced with a genuinely devious smile.

"Oh no, not that, its just, I'm rather picky about my spicy foods. If you're going to do spicy, you might as well do it right." he replied. Jake gave a hearty laugh, and lead him to the kitchen. Jake gestured to the nearby table, where Shade promptly set down his pack, pulled off his bow and slid it inside the long pack, and instead pulled out a backpackers guitar and strummed a gentle tune while Jake got to work cooking. The two of them stayed in a comfortable silence until Jake got to prepping the food in earnest, then Jake broke it first.

"So whats your story, bud? Not often we get folks like you around these parts, and I don't think Ive seen you here before."

Shade tilted his head to the side, then reached up and pulled off his mask, setting it down by his pack, and grinning at Jake.

"Well, that's because Shade hasn't ever been here before. I however, used to live here. Least for a while. Though you may not remember me, Ive actually seen the two of you once. Finn was still in diapers, of course, and you were pretty young yourself, so its not surprising that you don't remember."

Jake looked up from his cooking for a moment, surprised, and got his first real look at the stranger. His eyebrows rose as he looked at the strangers features, while he simply smirked back, then continued.

"Of course, the rest of my story is rather long and convoluted, and little of it applies to us right now, but the quick summary is that I was sent on an... errand... about a decade and a half ago. Seems the kingdom has gotten along well enough while I was gone. Other than the mess we left earlier today, for the most part it seems that you two have done enough housekeeping to turn this into quite the vacation spot."

Jake shrugged as he chopped veggies. "Yeah, for the most part. We have a few baddies that we had to drive off every once in a while. For the most part its not as bad as what we had to put up with today. Though there have been a few tough cookies."

Shade leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. 'Really? like who? I thought that the oceans around Ooo would keep most of the truly nasty creatures away. Did something come from overseas anyway?"

"Not that we know of, dude. But all of the local un-killable baddies have reared their ugly faces at one point or another. You heard of the Lich?"

This time both eyebrows went up. "Really? The Lich managed to escape its prison? And you two took care of him? Pretty wicked, dude. How'd you take care of him?"

Jake laughed, and spent a while recounting the tale of Finn, the Lich, the like-like sweater, and PB's de-aging, much to Shade's amusement. "Oh man" he said to Jake as he finished putting together dinner for the four current residents. "Well you heroes definitely have some class to you. I can safely say that I have never heard a story quite as crazy as that one."

"Quite as crazy as what?" came a voice from the nearby window. Jake looked up to see his bro and his girl climbing in from the window.

"Oh, I was just telling Shade here-"

"Call me Evan. I'm only Shade when the mask is on." he said, turning to greet the newcomers.

"- ah sorry, Evan here about our fun with the Lich."

Anything else Jake had said was completely lost on Finn and FP. Finn could only take in the fact that he hadn't seen Evan's face until now. His hair was shortly cropped and a light brown, his facial features angular, but relatively soft. He also had hetero-chromatic eyes, the left one a deep blue and the right a hazel. But really the individual features mattered little to Finn, instead he focused on the implication made by the newly uncovered face as a whole, and could only stutter out a single comment:

"... you... you're human... like me..."

Chapter break here sounds nice. thanks for listening. You like it? You hate it? Let me know! Updates to follow eventually!

MaximumSoldier: thanks for the review. Hope I can deliver on the awesome.


	3. History and Perspective

Chapter 3

Authors notes and review responses at the bottom. insert standard disclaimers here.

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

Evan blinked, then tilted his head to the side, regarding Finn curiously as he stood there nearly speechless regarding him somberly for a moment. Finally he asked him "What makes you think that hero?"

"y-you.. you're..." he stood there pointing at the houseguest, unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Jake, what do you think? Am I human?" he asked Jake as he came towards the table with dinner in hand. Jake leaned over and inhaled deeply, thought for a moment, and shook his head

"Naw, you smell close, but not quite like Finn. Smell closer to Susan than Finn really."

"Susan?"

FP answered that question. "A friend from one of their adventures, Susan Strong. She's a mutant apparently." Evan nodded in understanding, then he turned to a shocked and disappointed Finn, rolling up the sleeve of one of his right arm.

"Sorry hero. I may be part human, but unfortunately..." he pulled up the sleeve of his shirt past his arm, and held it out for them to see. his hand was certainly very human looking, but somewhere after the wrist, instead of skin, there was a rather ragged scar running all along his arm, and beyond that his arm was actually covered in scales. Finn could only blink at what he saw.

"... as you can see, not all of me is. I'm what you might call a... patchwork." he said. Finns shock was broken by a rather sharp elbow being poked into his side by his girl. He quickly turned red from embarrassment, and tried to apologize for his rudeness, but the newcomer waved it off, saying "no need to worry about it. Technically I am at least part human, more so than some, less than others. So we may not be brothers, but we're probably... cousins maybe? Distant cousins is probably right." He then rolled his sleeve back down and grabbed a burrito biting into it, chewing for a moment and then nodding in Jake's direction, thanking him for the food That seemed to be a signal for everyone to start eating, and for a time, everyone just enjoyed the food and swapped little stories and told jokes. Evan spent most of the time asking questions and listening to little stories as each person at the table told little stories. Even Beemo, who had snuck up on the table and sat himself beside Evan at some point told a few stories. As dinner ended, they all moved from the kitchen table to the living room where they all settled down again. The Flame Princess was the first to speak, asking Evan "So what did you mean when you said you and Finn were cousins?"

Evan turned his glass in his hands, looking inside for a moment before responding "Well, its a bit of a long story really, and to tell it, I have to tell you a bit of history. You all in for a bit of a tale?" At four nods, Evan stood and began to tell the story.

_Very little is known about the time before the Great Mushroom War, but digging through ruins and various caches of ancient knowledge we have been able to piece together a few things. Most of the currently recognized species of plants and animals did not exist, or at least didn't exist as we know it. This plane of existence was, at least for the most part, was the only known dimension. In fact, magiks of nearly all kinds simply didn't seem to exist. Though signs of some sorts of magic are seen from time to time in the archaeological exhibits, they appear to be few and far between, and more in the context of a fantasy than any actual person of note. In its place, the pre-war civilization seemed to consist of primarily humans, with most other species relegated to non-sentience. In the place of magiks, humans used advanced technology to perform their daily tasks. Though most of this technology was almost completely destroyed, we have been able to access some of their recorded data and can piece together some information on the months before the great war. For the most part, the world was indeed at peace, a peace that was uncommon for the times. The worlds technologies had progressed to the point where many of the common flashpoints of societal breakdown, such as poverty and disease, were quickly being controlled and eliminated. This spread of health and wealth, unfortunately, had not done enough to eliminate social barriers between some peoples, and therefore there was some significant tensions between different nations (which are fairly similar to our Kingdoms here, though the ruling class is often replaced by something other than a monarch) . For the most part, the average citizen of the world was happy, and everything was good. Unfortunately, that peace was not to last._

_So far, scholars have not been able to determine the exact cause of the breakdown between these nations, but they have determined the basic scope of events leading to the cataclysm, and the source of the chaos. For with all the peace-bringing technology they did have, they also had technology that was used in weapons of war. What magnificent tools of destruction the old age had, blades that could cut through stone and steel like a knife through butter. massive machines that carried thousands of warriors to battlefields far across the oceans, paving the way for them as they go. And the bombs. tools meant for nothing but decimation, broad chaos and death. it was in these dogs of war that man met its end. Though no one knows who was the one to strike the first blow, we know the first target, and the true devastation that it caused. Somewhere in the northern hemisphere, one of the missiles that were fired struck a technological and sociological center of what was then known as the United American Commonwealth. The capital at the time was a flourishing city, in part because of its new breed of power generation, which was powered, in part, by tapping the geothermal energy from the planet's core. Though many missiles struck on that day. the one that truly started the great mushroom war was, in fact, a lucky strike that happened to hit this single point. the single missile that struck the central point of the city managed to strike that power plant, and started a chain reaction that actually detonated the power plant, causing nearly ten percent of the planets mass to vaporize almost instantly, shooting up in a massive fireball that was actually visible by nearly sixty percent of the planet. The cloud that rose from the horrible ruin of the continent forever stood in the minds of the survivors, and the story was passed, such as it was, through most of the generations that survived the cataclysm and solidified the name of the final conflict of humanity as the 'great mushroom war'_

_The two centuries that followed are almost nearly undocumented. From what sporadic data that has been collected, we know that the cloud completely blocked out the sun for nearly a hundred and twenty years. during that time, nearly all of the plants and animals died out almost completely, and only a few isolated settlements of humans still remained alive when they came out of their shelters. When the few humans came out to the newly exposed sunlight several generations later, they found the world they lived in drastically changed. Between the radiation and poisons from the bombs and the turbulent atmosphere caused by the darkened skies, only the plants and animals that were hardiest and adapted the quickest were able to survive. The next six hundred years were a hodgepodge of humans interacting with an increasingly changing environment. In many ways, the humans were suddenly the ones fighting to prevent their own extinction as they found that the rather strong radiation created an entirely new evolutionary map fo them to interact with. As the decades and centuries progressed, many species, such as dogs and other creatures had actually begun to gain types of sentience, which only grew as time went on. Some humans, unable to adapt to the situation they found themselves suffering quickly, and eventually destroyed as the rampant species newly forming overran standard human defences. Many humans were eliminated in the first half of the millennium after the Great Mushroom War, so many in fact that the humans became nearly extinct. In addition, the massive levels of energy released had actually caused rifts between this dimension and others. Through those rifts, many new species of creatures, species of plants, and even our magical talents began to stream into this world, further throwing traditionalist humans into chaos._

_However, where some of these humans suffered, many other humans thrived in teh new environment. Finding common ground with many of the newly adapting species in the fact that they all were learning to live in a new world, they decided to intermingle and work together instead of fight. The created cities open to all who wished to live there peacefully, and embraced the gifts that the situation had given them. Many species came to gather together in new kingdoms, working together with humans. Over the years, between the rapid mutations caused by the radiation, the influence of the magical realms, along with species interbreeding that would occasionally occur between various sentient species in the later years, many humans over the generations became something different. By the time the first millennia had passed since after the chaos of the Great Mushroom War, humans basically became an unintentional grandfather to modern society. As the number of genetically pure humans drifed down into near oblivion, the children of earlier generations of humans became so many of the humanoid species that have now come to thrive on this planet. In truth, genetic compatibility of humans is so broad after so many generations that in the end, they very well may be related in some distant way to nearly all humanoid species._

At this, Evan's demeanor and storytelling attitude shifted, becoming more pensive. "It's surprising, really, how many different ways the human species branched in the last thousand years. Joining with different species, simply evolving. Indeed, we used to be the most resilient species on the planet. Now, that resilience is effectively removing what was once the original human species from existence, changing it into something new. So, Finn, you shouldn't really think of yourself as one of the last remnants of a species, but instead as a reminder of the roots of this new world. Your ancestors caused great destruction, and after that, helped build an entire new world." his expression turned to a sly grin ".. it also means a level of... biological compatibility... has already been established with other species, such as... elementals maybe?" He laughed heartily when Finn blushed a deep crimson and FP buried her face in his shoulder in embarrassment.

Jake asked the next question. "You said there were still pockets of humans still alive, right? Do you know of any that are still around?"

Evan's jovial mood shifted as he turned to look out of the window, his back to the rest of the group. "I had... run into a few over the course of my travels... but it was a long time ago... they've turned into something else now." Jake couldn't help but feel sorry for Finn at this statement. Yeah, Finn would always be his brother, and no difference in species would change that, but it still has to hurt to get confirmation that you really were the last one of your kind around ever. Evan turned around and continued "But anyway, enough sap. One more story from you guys, then we should all turn in. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and we have to be up early."

Finn tilted his head to the side and asked "Why? It'll probably be another day or two till big sis takes care of all the damage, what will we be doing tomorrow?"

At this Shade appeared. His arm over Finns shoulder, and a rather disturbing looking grin on his mask. "Tomorrow morning, buddy. I get to see what you're really made of."

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

As the evening winded down, and Jake went to find enough blankets for Evan to crash on the couch in the living room, Finn and FP were finishing up the last of the dishes (Finn would wash, and FP would dry, heated towels made things that much easier) in silence. Both were still lost in thought from the events of the evening, each in their own minds. Finn couldn't help but take his mind back to Evan's telling of the history of his people. Were his ancestors really that destructive? Did they really cause that much death? It was a heavy thought for his hero brain to comprehend. Not to mention the fact that the story all but confirmed his fear: that there really weren't any remaining humans anywhere, even outside of Ooo. He knew this, mostly in his head, but knowing it and *knowing* it were two very different things. He felt a very slight sting in his arm, and turned to see that he had finished the dishes already, and was just trying to clean nothing. He looked at his arm, and followed the Flame Princess' hand up to her eyes. She looked into his eyes, and knew what had to be done.

"Let's go upstairs." Finn could only nod at her, and she gently led him upstairs. A few months ago, it became apparent, with Jake and Finn each having their own significant others, and with more than enough guests staying in the treehouse from time to time, it was probably time for them to expand a bit. It took a lot of labor, but the brothers had managed to build a second bedroom off the side of one of the treasure rooms. It was typically reserved for guests, like when FP was hanging out and a rainstorm came in, or when Lady Rainicorn and PB would swing by for a movie night that extended too late for them to head back. Tonight, however, it would be perfect for the two teens. A newly pajama-clad Finn walked over to the closet and pulled out a sleeping bag, while the flame princess used the time while his back was turned to magik her dress into a long sleeping gown. Finn smiled at her, sending a silent thanks as he walked passed her and settled onto the bed, wrapping himself tightly in the new sleeping bag, and FP settled down on the bed next to him. It was rather a coincidence that they found this specific fabric simply hanging out in their treasure room some time ago. Though it was extremely difficult to work with, it was soft and comfortable, and - perhaps even more surprisingly - nearly completely fireproof. Jake had the same pixies that spun his spider silk pants to weave this fabric into a sleeping bag, giving it to him amongst jokes and jibes that served to either confuse or embarrass the two of them to no end. Both of them, however, saw the gift for what it was, both a heartfelt approval of their... relationship or whatever, and as an acknowledgement that Finn was growing up. It was well appreciated then, and even more so now, as FP ran her hands over Finn's hair, or at least over the top of the sleeping bag where his hair would be. For a few minutes they talked of non-sensical things, then fell silent. Finn was the one to break it.

"It hurts, you know? Knowing for sure."

"yeah."

"I mean, at least before there was hope."

"Well, there still is, kind of. Evan didn't say there were no humans left, just that if there were, they were hiding, isolated."

A smile from Finn "yeah, maybe you're right."

"of course I'm right. I'm always right, but you already know that." she giggled softly, and placed a soft, warm kiss on his forehead, and snuggled in close to him. They fell into silence again.

"Hey Ruby?" she smiled. Ruby was his pet name for her. She still hadn't figured out why, and he tended to deny using the name. It was only when he wasn't paying attention that he would use it,.

"Yeah Finn?"

"Thanks. You know, for everything."

== OO 00 - 00 OO ==

The room was quiet save for Finn's soft snoring. FP was still awake though, she had been for the past hour, thoughts running through her head at an annoyingly furious pace, when all she really wanted to do was enjoy sleeping here with her Finn. Though, that wasn't entirely true. She did want to do something else.

She wanted to strangle Evan.

It wasn't that she didn't like him. In fact, she thought he was probably the second most interesting person she had met up until that point. It was more the fact that he obviously was baiting her. One of the things that being locked up in a jar and having nothing to do for a good portion of your life is that you become uncannily observant of little things that happen around you, and a few things just didn't fit together right with the newcomer. First, his sudden arrival at this specific point. She had seen the patterns of the nasties gathering, and between her personal observations, and information coming from her father (who, though not necessarily evil himself, kept in regular contact with many people who actually were quite evil) and knew that things were going to get really messy soon, today's little scrape wouldn't even be a cakewalk. The arrival of an unknown like Shade at just such a time was too much to be a simple coincidence. What his motives were, she couldn't be sure. All she knew is that he was keeping secrets. Perhaps the most damning of which was revealed to her at the end of the night, something that had completely thrown her for a loop, something that she had been trying to understand since they settled down in bed. She thought she had imagined it at first, but the look he gave her out of the corner of his eye made her discard that thought almost immediately. He thought he might have done it y accident, but the movement was too deliberate and intentional for that. No, he was baiting her, he wanted her to ask. She thought about telling Finn, but also decided against that, not wanting to risk the implied secrecy Evan was suggesting he required. This was a bit too important to her to risk losing this information without at least hearing his side out. As sleep finally began to claim her, she went through the moment once more in her mind.

"What will we be doing?" Jake had asked. Evan then turned into Shade, and threw his arm around Finn's shoulder, and in doing so reached across his back and laid his hand on her back.

His bare hand had been laid on her back. And when he readjusted it, he made sure to accidentally slide it through her hair. His bare hand went through her hair, the part of her body that burns the hottest. Even when inactive, Finn cant even touch it without getting burned.

And Shade wanted her to know he could touch it with his bare hands, without a second thought. And not get burned. And if he could teach me how to let Finn do that...

Ruby smiled. Boy was Finn going to be surprised.

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

Jake settled down into his usual drawer for the evening. Though Finn had always offered him the bed when he wasn't in the room, he always got some form of comfort from sleeping in the same drawer he always had since they moved into the treehouse. And for some reason, that comfort was doubly necessary tonight.

Jake was, of course, a dog, and being a dog (even if a genetically altered one) he still felt the dog instincts hit him occasionally. Though this more often involved him ending up needing to control his desire to sniff someones butt, it had worked to their advantage on more than one occasion. His nose was extremely sensitive, and his ability to track was actually renown in all of Ooo, a boon to all adventuring teams. His natural dog-like ability to judge character had also come in handy in certain occasions. And it was that sense that was concerning him today. He had spent nearly the entire evening on edge, and he was pretty sure it was because of Shade. That was kind of odd really, because Evan didn't necessarily bother him. He wasn't lying when he sniffed him at the dinner table, his smell did have hints of what he had come to identify as 'human' scents over the years, but it was certainly unique enough that there was little chance that he was a complete human. But that smell wasn't all he knew was slightly off about the newcomer. What concerned him wasn't so much what he smelled or saw, though those things were interesting in themselves, but rather what he felt, what his instincts were telling him deep in his doggie guts. He couldn't quite place the feeling right then, but he knew it was familiar somehow. A feeling of general foreboding, but not the usual 'Finn is walking into a silly situation' feeling. It wasn't one he had felt often, but it was one that he knew he had felt before. But when? He remembered Evan said that they had met before when he was young, maybe they had met on his adventures with their mom and...

Jake's eyes snapped open.

He remembered now, remembered the times he had felt this before. The first time he had felt it was when he was rather young. Finn had just been taken in by the small family, and he was still quite a puppy, but he indeed remembered one particular evening, the evening that an elder-demon rose up and threatened the kingdom. It had been some time after a rather brutal battle of some sort that he couldn't remember, so many of the local hero types were already indisposed or injured, so the demon had actually managed to wander freely for a time, until he happened upon their old home. His father, crazy dog that he was, attempted to simply talk the demon down for a bit, deftly avoiding any harm the demon would throw upon him, until a rogue tree had been damaged and both himself and Finn had nearly been crushed by a falling log. Mom had stopped it, of course, but it seemed to have changed the perspective of the combatants. Joshua had stood in front of the demon, and without taking his eyes off the beast, called out "Margaret, take Finn and Jake to the cellar" His mom had taken them down to the cellar almost immediately, where they stayed for a while until his dad had come down to fetch them. When they came out, the area looked like a tornado had blown through, ripping up half the trees nearby, cutting out huge gashes in the earth. It looked like a war zone. His dad, however, showed nothing of how he had acted before, merely waving off his questions, saying he had taken care of it, and never elaborating further. Jake actually shuddered at the memory of his fathers voice. It was far from the kind man that had raised him and his brother. Far from the man that had taught them how to be heroes.

It was also the first time he felt that feeling. It was the feeling of being in the presence of a true predator. The feeling of standing next to someone who, at the slightest whim, could simply step forward, and all in front of them would simply fall away. The feeling that made you hoped you were never prey. After that revelation, it took some time for Jake to finally succumb to sleep.

Yes, he would have to watch Shade. Very, very carefully.

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

Evan leaned back against the couch, softly humming to himself. He usually needed very little sleep, so it wasn't often that he found time like this to himself, though less often he found himself with company. It was a acceptable inconvenience, however, given the location. He smiled taking in how spacious and comfortable they had made this place, the furniture, the decorations, the carving on the walls. It truly was a home, rather than a simple residence. It wasn't something he often was able to visit, and he always relished being able to bask in the warmth that it provided. He softly stood, walking over to the opposite wall, running her hand over one of the carvings in the bark of the treehouse, admiring the craftsmanship. and thought about all that he had seen so far that day. It seemed that the heroes of Ooo both met and failed his expectations simultaneously. Finn was still young, so some of it could be excused, but it was obvious that he was oblivious to many things. He would have to inquire to the princess when she saw fit to actually summon him again as to what he knew and what he didn't. It was obvious at the very least that he would be receptive to learning, and possessed an eagerness to fight that was nearly unparalleled. His do-goody attitude, though he knew it would probably grate on his nerves soon enough, was also a great boon. But his fighting skills seemed to still be lacking, and that would have to be fixed quickly if he was to be able to fight for his home, for his friends. At that, he smiled. He had taken a gamble on the elemental princess picking up on his little feint, and it seemed, at least for now, that she did. Hopefully she would come to him soon enough, Finn was going to need all the help he can get, and the Sword cannot always provide for the hero. For a moment, he stood lost in thought, buried in his own memories, before turning and quietly padding out of the house. he still had a few more hours before he had to turn in, and he should probably restock and replenish himself before sunrise.

There was much to do, and tomorrow would just be the beginning.

A/N: Another chapter come and gone! and a whole group of new reviewers, too! many thanks to all who review, responses below for you all. readers, thanks for listening, feel free to hate or love this. if you hate or love it enough, tell me about it!

jermjumpin54: I do agree with you to an extent, however you have to understand that though Shade/Evans bad-assery level is higher to begin with, Finn is still young, and as he grows, so does his general level of bad-assery. Stick with me, I think you'll like where this is going.

Luminous Blane: You are right of course, as you may presently be aware, my grammar is terrible. I also don't really beta, or even review these before i post them. i check for spelling and story continuity, and that's about it. I probably will have to go back and de-suckify the story after i get into it a bit, but honestly I'm on a roll in terms of plot writing, so that will probably be put on the back burner for a time when I get some writers block. Stay tuned though, hopefully as I write my grammar will improve somewhat as I learn to better put my brain goop on paper.

The Awes0me 0ne & Spadekun: Thanks! Im glad you like my brain poop. Hope I can keep you entertained! Coming up next, Chapter 4: Shade is kind of a dick, dude.

Thanks all!

"Peace, we out!"

RIP MCA


	4. Shade is kind of a Dick

Hey all, another chapter! Standard disclaimers apply. Do not read on an empty stomach... or probably a full stomach.

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

Chapter 4 - Shade is kind of a dick.

Finn's eyes snapped open to be greeted with a soft amber glow lighting up the guest room. He took a moment to lay there and bask in Ruby's glow, and the small level of warmth the enchanted sleeping bag let seep through. Though he would only admit it to himself (and maybe her, if she asked) but these were the times where he felt most at peace. Surprisingly, there were times that the long arduous life of the hero wore on our intrepid adventurer. He would never give it up for anything, of course - it was his task, his duty... his purpose in his life to help all who needed it, and he would never abandon that quest as long as there were people to help. But sometimes, he just wished that he could take some time to simply step away from being a hero. He saw why the mighty Billy decided to retire and retreat to a cave, hidden far away from the rest of the world. After so long, the cries of the people who needed help were all you could hear, they would echo through your head. No matter how often you would step out to help, there was always another damsel in distress, another city that needs rescuing from some beast or whatevs. It probably would drive him bonkers one day too, to be honest.

That was, it would if it wasn't for Ruby. She was like the apple pie for his soul, the one thing that could always get him up and going again. The times that he would come back from a long hard day and she would be able to take time from her duties as Flame Princess, and they would meet on the roof of the tree house and just spend time watching the stars come out, those were the highlight of the day. Even better were the days where she would come with them, the hero and the adventurer in training, just striking out looking to do good. And boy, could she adventure. When he first met her, he could see how passionate she was, and that carried over into everything she would set herself to do. She still had a lot to learn, yeah, but she had really only just started, he'd been adventuring for years. They took the time to visit her father, the Flame King, who, upon seeing her daughters' insistence to learn the way of the adventurer, was surprisingly accommodating, providing her with a light armor and a sword treated in the magic fires of the flame kingdom, making them strong enough to handle the flames, though he warned them that they were by their nature weak against cold and water. This did put a damper on some of their spirits, but they continued to persevere, and a few months later Ruby was going on most adventures that did not involve walking through rainstorms, or the ice king. It had become so commonplace, in fact, that he now felt he spent as much time with Ruby as he did with Jake, especially considering his Dog-brother had been spending more and more time with Lady recently.

His train of thought was interrupted at this point by rather pressing needs, so he carefully extracted himself from Ruby's arms and silently creeped to the bathroom. After taking care of his usual morning ablutions (though he still rarely showered, he did make a point of brushing his teeth after a few pointed comments from PB about dental hygiene she happened to find in some old tome she came across), he stepped out of the bathroom and happened to take a glance out of the window. He saw that Evan was already up and he was... was he... dancing? No, after Finn observed him for a moment, his movements was a bit too deliberate for dancing, and the short sword in his hand also seemed to prove otherwise. He watched for a moment, and couldn't help but be impressed. He obviously wasn't quite as practiced in the sword as Finn was, and there were a few times he saw that he left openings while fighting his invisible adversaries, but he certainly could give anyone in Ooo a run for their money. He watched for a little more until he heard Ruby stir, and walked over to her as she slowly blinked the sleep out of her eyes.

"Hey Finn" she said with a sleepy grin "feel better this morning?"

Finn smiled back at her and gingerly laid a hand on her, being careful to keep the fireproof bag between them. "much better, thanks to you. Its early yet, why don't you get some more sleep. Evan is up, and training, I think I'm going to join him. Come and find us when you're up?"

Ruby sighed happily "sure, Finn. See you outside later." She carefully reached out from under the sleeping bag, and, concentrating a bit, cooled her hand enough that she could cup his cheek in her hand. He leaned into it a bit, and reached up and placed his hand over hers. They held that position for a moment, before her concentration waned and she pulled away before she ended up burning him. He softly said his goodbye and wandered out of the room and towards the entrance, rolling his eyes at Jake's rather loud snoring on the way out.

He stepped into the sunlight to find that Evan (or Shade, rather; he had put his mask back on) had finished whatever he was doing with his sword, and had turned instead to his bow. He was inspecting the fletching on his arrows when Finn approached in greeting. "Morning, Shade, whats hangin'?"

Shade looked up, his mask set in the smirk he seemed to prefer. Tilting his head to one side, he looked down the end of one of his arrow, carefully plucking out a loose bit before setting it down. "Morning, hero. Was wondering when you'd get up. Up all night with your lady?" Finn turned red and grumbled.

"You're just as bad as Jake. Not cool." he said, looking down only to find Shade had stepped up right next to him.

"Don't worry your pretty little hair about it, hero. You learn to get what happiness you can , cause the next morning you get the crap kicked out of you. You ready to show me what you got?"

Finn looked up, determination on his face. He nodded once, saying "yeah, lets do this."

Shade leaned in close, the mask squinting and looking critically at him for a moment. At this distance, Finn couldn't help but find the cold mask rather unnerving, but he struggled not to show it in his face. He got in a little closer, then walked away."

"Good then lets begin with a little test." He then turned to face they young hero, holding something in his hand. a soft breeze blew by, rustling the leaves on the trees and blowing Finns hair...

wait.. hair? Eyes wide, Finn reached up to his head to find that his beloved magic hat was simply... gone. He turned, stunned, to Shade, to find him twirling the hat around in his left hand, the mask back to his typical smirk. When he spoke, his voice matched the mask. "Thought you'd never figure it out. Rule number one for today, always pay attention to your surroundings. Now your second test should be simple enough..."

Finn, of course, was not completely paying attention to what Shade was saying. "Dude, not cool! Give me back my hat bro!"

Shade simply shook his head, the mask twisted into a disappointed face. "So impatient. Fine, you want the hat?" he asked as he dropped into a fighting stance.

/Current track: Jogi - Main by Panjabi MC/

"Come and get it."

Finn rushed at Shade, diving past him for his hat, but Shade was faster, shifting his weight and twisting back, letting Finn stumble past him. "Careful there," he said. "Don't overextend yourself so far." He then turned around and tilted his head sideways. "If I was a real enemy, you'd have a knife in your back." Finn growled at him in response, and turned to face the hat-stealer. With another leap, he tried again, this time leaping up to grab the hat, only to find that Shade had again twisted himself out of the way.

The next two hours were a test of endurance for Finn, as he struggled in vain to get back his beloved hat. As the morning wore on, clouds began to slowly gather, darkening the sky, and Finn's mood followed. At the beginning, he would simply try and grab the hat from Shade's hand, but he would continually keep it away from him. After a while, his attempts to grab instead came to attempts to strike Shade, distract him enough to grab the hat, but he could never score a clean enough hit to grab at the hat. Shade would duck and weave, sometimes blocking his strikes, sometimes taking them, but it was never enough. The mask would constantly be set in that smirk, and the tone of his voice would match, mildly mocking while attempting to instruct, but it was grating on Finns nerves after the second hour or so, when the rain really started to pick up. After a particularly brutal throw, where a mistimed jump gave Shade the opportunity to twist underneath him and use Finn's own momentum to throw him a dozen feet away, landing in the mud, Shade turned from explanations and simple ribbing to mocking. "Come on now, Hero, how do you expect to get anything done from the mud? If crawling down there is all you can do, I'm surprised you've managed to live as long as you have."

The words were enough to get Finn up off the ground again, this time taking a swing directly at Shade, rather than going for his hat. His first punch surprisingly landed against the taller man's face, and Finn quickly followed up with another strike. The second blow was easily deflected, and earned him nothing more than a comment about him being "sloppy" which honestly Finn wasn't paying attention to. The blows and dives continued for a few more minutes, until another poorly timed attack saw Finn flying through the air, this time right by the base of the treehouse. From a heap on the ground, Finn tried to catch his breath and heard Shade walking slowly towards him.

"You have some spunk, kid, ill give you that, but if you keep fighting like this, you know what will happen? You'll lose. Youll lose more than your hat," he said, throwing his hat on the log behind him. "You'll lose everything you care about. You'll wake up and find you have nothing." He stepped closer, stopping a few feet away. Finn got to his knees, his back to Shade, and noticed Jake in the window, a somber expression on his face, holding onto the Flame Princess' shoulder while wearing what appeared to be an oven mitt. She looked terrified. Shade apparently noticed this as well.

"... Even she wont be saved. If you're lucky, they'll kill her quickly... or they may drown her."

At this, Finn saw red. Something inside him just... snapped, hearing that. No one would touch his Ruby. Not if he was still alive.

"... they want her..." he said, getting to his feet, his back still turned to Shade, who was a few paces away now.

"... They''ll have to go through ME!"

Suddenly Finn lashed out, striking at Shade. He wondered momentarily, in a disconnected way, exactly when he picked up the family sword, but such thoughts were immediately dismissed as he heard the hiss of pain that came when the blade made contact, though barely, with Shade's right shoulder. Finn, in a blind rage, rushed towards Shade with a mighty scream, intent on finishing this, one way or the other.

And in a moment, it was. With one swift move, Shade used his arm bracer to redirect the blade, flipped Finn over his back, landing him in the mud. As rational Finn returned, he found himself on his back Shade standing over him with a knife positioned not an inch from his right eye. For a moment, he laid there in shock, staring at the glowing red eye sockets of Shades mask. After a moment, Shade spoke, his tone serious.

"The real first lesson of any warrior is this. Your head and your heart are your greatest strength and your greatest weakness. Always use both, never let them be used against you."

Finn suddenly understood. "you... you did that on purpose" he stated rather than asked, standing very still, the dagger hovering over his face, still as stone.

"Yes." Shade replied. "I did. you may have to do the same-"

"HEY!"

He didn't have the chance to continue his speech, however, as a cry split the air, and a dark blob hurtled through the air towards the stationary combatants. Shade barely had time to twist towards the threat before he was struck hard and thrown across the field, rolling to stop some distance away with a grunt. Finn sat up suddenly to find the end of a certain guitar hanging in front of his face. He followed up the neck of the instrument to see that it was being held by a certain vampire... a certain very irate and not in any way amused vampire. She hovered a few feet above ground, Axe bass held tightly in her hand, hair waving in the storm of its own accord, and glowing eyes. Shade slowly raised himself up and turned towards the intrepid instrumentalist, who raised up her weapon menacingly.

"Hands off the weenie, jerk."

== OO 00 - 00 OO ==

A/N

Oh my! Seems Marceline has shown up at the most inappropriate time. Will our hero be able to convince her that Shade doesn't deserve to get his ass handed to him... much? Will the vampire queen even listen? Well, you'll all have to wait until the next chapter to find out!

thanks for listening all! Cool that folks keep reading, means my writing is still generally not vomit-inducing! Not many authors notes today, so keep an eye out (eventually) for the next chapter: Chapter 5: "Fight club", or, "Shots, served up the old-fashioned way".

/ef/


	5. Shots, served up the old fashioned way

Chapter 5: Shots, served up the old fashioned way.

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

Marceline was furious.

Well, furious was actually kind of an understatement. See, Marceline, up until that point where she slugged Shade across the field like a croquette ball, had been having a rather bad week. She had left the main realm of Ooo some weeks earlier to return to her own realm for a time, the realm where she technically was a queen. A place she hadn't been in what was probably a few dozen decades, and a place, she could admit to herself, that she really didn't miss that much.

She really never wanted the job of ruler over all vampires, the job actually came to her. See, since immortal beings really had little need for legacies, or inheritances, the standard method of passing a crown was seen as irrelevant. The second most common method of succession of royalty was essentially a hostile takeover, usually involving the death of the monarch. That, of course, was indeed the norm for a time, but after a few centuries in which a whole lot of vampires ascended to the throne only to be subsequently murdered slash usurped themselves, it was decided that that option was out as well for the good of the species. In its place, a compromise was created. Whenever a vampire monarch was killed, or chose to vacate the throne, the next vampire would be chosen from ALL vampires via the casting of lots, managed independently by both the lord of the night-o-sphere and death himself. This way, a rather ambitious vampire couldn't simply obtain the throne via subterfuge and murder, and suddenly the regicide counts dropped. This process was also how, some seven hundred eighty two years ago, one Marceline Abadeer became the queen of the vampires. It was a job that she certainly didn't ask for, and in fact attempted to vehemently decline the job, claiming nepotism as it was her Father that had cast the lots. Of course, both Death and her father were not to be questioned about their integrity in this matter. So, with great reluctance, she took up the mantle of ruler.

Sadly, her reluctant attitude didn't mean she could shirk her duties as queen. And despite how much she disliked the work involved, she could certainly tolerate it instead of the alternative of giving over rule to another vampire. Though there was a chance that things would continue as they are now, there was a much greater chance that the lots would fall on a vampire with old blood... and old perspective. She would be damned (ha) if she would be indirectly responsible for a millennia of infighting between vampires (and more than likely half the other people on this rock now that vampires were common knowledge). So she tolerated these duties, which meant traveling back to the sanctum every century or three to spend time patching alliances, answering challenges to her rule, and generally putting up with far more than she would tolerate from any single person. So now, after succeeding in putting down a few miniature revolutions, beating down half a dozen squabbles over territory and the like, and generally putting up with old aristocratic jackasses for two weeks straight, she was pretty much spent. So, coming home, she did what she always did when she needed a recharge. She went to see her two favorite weenies for a bit. She could never quite put her finger on it, but she would always end up feeling better after spending time with her little former henchman and his brother (the dog had finally started to get used to her being around), and more recently his girlfriend (which she ribbed on Finn for without respite) and his adopted big sister (who had surprisingly grown more tolerable over the recent months). The group of them were probably the closest to real family the vampire would admit to having for the last seven centuries.

So to describe what she felt as she came to the tree house looking for some chillaxin time and found Finn with a blade nearly in his eye as fury was a significant understatement. She truly put her full force into that blow with her axe, and the fact that Shade was conscious at all after taking a hit like that was a testament to his stamina. When the jerk actually stood up, she was surprised.

When he gave a rough chuckle, she actually was brought up short.

/Current track - Terminal March - Darren Korb (Bastion Soundtrack)/

"Now, that's the kind of blow I haven't taken in a while. See, hero, that's what I'm talking about." he shook himself, and winced a bit as he saw that his right shoulder had popped its socket, his arm dangling to his side. With a grimace, he folded his arm and grabbed the elbow and pulled. With a pop that even had Finn grimacing, the shoulder set back into place, and Shade swung it around a bit, testing it out. Satisfied, he turned back to Marceline and tilted his head to the side, the smirk back on his face. Disturbingly, despite his torn and muddy clothes, his mask was still clean, and bone white. "Ready to show what you're made of, vampire?"

Marceline simply hissed in response, hefting up her axe bass. Shade reached behind his back and pulled out his weapon, which appeared to be a simple iron rod. With a flick of his wrist, however the thing sort of, unfolded, into a long staff with a sharp blade at one end. Spinning the pike around and falling back into a battle stance, he grinned at his opponent.

"Lets wrastle!"

Marceline needed no further invitation, swinging her bass high and flying through the air swinging her weapon down, only to have to spring backward as Shade sidestepped her downward swing and flung out the pike to meet her. She then brought the axe back up to block a swing of his pike's staff towards her head, and countered with an swing of her claws, catching him in the shoulder and spinning him around. She tried to follow up with another swing of her axe, but he managed to roll out of the way just in time, and she again had to fly backwards to avoid the pike that came rushing for her from his position on the ground. For the next few minutes, the two of them fought to a relative standstill, Marceline's vampiric speed and strength being countered by the distance Shade afforded himself with his polearm. After a while, both sides were panting form the effort, Marceline showing a few scrapes and bruises from times when she wasnt quite fast enough, and Shade was definitely favoring his left leg, and blood was running out from under his right arm guard from a close call with her axe. It certainly didn't seem to dampen his mood, though, as he called out in an annoyingly cheerful voice "you are truly a delightful dance partner, milady. I haven't had a workout like this in some time." Marceline just growled and lifted up her axe again. Shade chuckled and crouched down again, beckoning for her to strike. So she did, stepping forward to take a swing. But she knew as soon as she started that she made a mistake. It appeared that Shade was going to swing low, and she took a step forward to swing low, but found that his strike was a feint. Instead he drove the tip of his pike into the ground where her axe struck against it hard, coming to a stop, then with not a moments hesitation Shade used her axe as a vault and his polearm as a pivot, swinging around and putting a flying kick dead center in her face. with a muffled cry she stumbled backwards, more shocked than hurt, and put her hand up to her face. She drew back her hand, to find it covered in blood. He had broken her nose. She was completely shocked, no mortal had been able to do that sort of damage to her in forever. Apparently, Shade was just as shocked, as he just stood there, and simply said "Woah. Did not expect that."

And with that, Marceline decided that this was over. With a roar, she rose in the air and grew, changing into a giant beast. Vaguely somewhere, he heard Finn's voice saying something, but she lost it to the sound of her roar. When her change was complete, she looked for her target, only to find him standing in front of a rather concerned looking Finn. She reached down to grab at him, but he raised up his had and swept it across, and she had to pull back as a wall of fire leapt up in front of them. He heard Finns voice this time calling out to her "Marceline, chillax! He's not really out to hurt me!"

He then heard Shades voice add in "Yeah, Marcie, its not like that hurt that much anyway, did it?"

Marceline snarled, glaring at the jerk who had broken her nose. "Shut up! Noone is allowed to call me that!"

Shade just laughed, his arm still out holding up the flames. "But you told me Marcie! You told me I could when I earned it!" This brought up the vampire short. When did she do that?

"What?"

Shade cautiously lowered the flames, bringing down his hand. He then said calmly. "You told me I could only call you Marcie when I had earned it." He then reached up and pulled off his mask, the grin on his face and tone of his voice running in contrast to the dangerous situation.

"You told me I would earn it when I made you bleed."

A suddenly humanoid Marceline just gawked at him, a face matched by the younger hero standing behind him.

"E... Evan?"

The young man gave a over-dramatic gracious bow. "In the flesh. Well, most of it is mine anyway. I am forever at your service, your majesty."

Marceline narrowed her eyes at the young man, flew up very close to him. After a moment of close inspection, she reached out and punched him hard in the shoulder. Evan let out a grimace and hissed out. "Be careful woman, you did break that arm earlier, you know."

"Well," the vampire replied "you shouldn't have let your guard down, so really its your fault." And with that, she gathered him up in a bone-crushing hug, both of them laughing. With an arm (sort of carefully) thrown over his shoulder, she lead him back to the tree house, the two of them chatting back and forth rather amiably.

Finn could only stare at the pair as they walked back to his home. What exactly just happened?

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

"Pass the salt, you glorified leech."

"Why certainly, you fleshy excuse for a potluck."

"ooh, potluck. fairly classy word for you. You keeping a dictionary under the table?"

Three occupants of the lunch table at the tree house sat in silence, eyes darting back and forth between Evan and Marceline's little verbal sparring match. The two of them would alternate between hurling insults and talking about nothing in particular. Worse, it seems they enjoyed how confused they were, and in fact flaunted it. The conversation continued until around half way through lunch until finally Ruby couldn't take it anymore and just blurted out "What the Glob is up with you two!"

All four of the others seated at the table turned to stare at the elemental, who suddenly found the table extremely interesting. "I just... don't get it. You two were fighting and it was all sorts of wham and bang and... oooh!" she threw up her hands in frustration, panting. Finn reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, only to draw it back suddenly. Unfortunately, though she had gotten better at controlling her flames, she couldn't keep them from hurting people without actively concentrating on it. She turned and gave Finn an apologetic smile, and found it returned. She calmed herself, and asked "so, do you two know each other?"

Marceline snickered. "Yeah, sparky." Ruby glared at her rather obnoxious and rude nickname, unheeded by the vampire. "Evan and I go way back. Well, way back for him anyway, little baby."

"Hey, you're the one who associated with me, what does that say about your maturity level?" Evan responded, and received a raspberry in reply. He smirked at her and continued "I accidentally wandered into one of her little retreats, a cave by a river, when I was younger. She caught me exploring, and proceeded to beat the stuffing out of me. Though I put up a valiant fight-"

"- whatever, dude, you swung a stick at me twice then cried like a baby when I flicked your nose." Marceline interjected, earning her a slice of tomato hurled in her direction.

"-hey shaddup, I'm telling the story!" Evan retorted. Marceline just smirked and promptly sucked the color out of the tomato slice. "Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted. After making a strategic retreat, I decided that I had a new goal. Of proving my strength by defeating the foul evil, totally gross vampire." This time it was Ruby who let out a snicker. "Well, I was nine at the time, so girls were gross. Doubly so for girl vampires. Anyway, I came back the next day to face the gross vampire, and after another valiant struggle I was defeated again."

"-valiant, right. I hung you upside down by your ankle until you cried." Another tomato slice deflected and drained of its color.

"SO, I came again, and again and again. Day after day, I tried to beat the vampire queen. And every time I was rebutted, regardless of how great my struggle. My attempts at victory were not for nothing, however. Eventually, my awesome warrior spirit began to endear myself to the mighty queen. Eventually, after she would defeat me, she would begin to tell me why, in excruciating detail, and with what, I must tell you, was far more mocking and insults that should be given a nine year old child. I began to learn from our dear Marcy." A hunk of break sailed across the table towards Evan in response to this, which he caught, and promptly began munching on as he continued.

"For some years, my tutelage under the warrior vampire continued. I learned the very foundations of combat from her, along with many other skills, including swordplay, proper musicianship, surprising enough, cooking. Though truthfully, I learned that more because she really couldn't cook." Again he had to reach out and catch food thrown in his direction,, this time a walnut, which he promptly cracked open in his hand and proceeded to eat.

"However, as is with all things, that time came to an end. My duties called to me more and more, and soon enough, I was asked to leave the continent, and I had to break the news to my poor friend, who was just distraughtAGH!" This time, he had to dodge several dinner utensils Marceline used as projectiles while growling out "You liar, I kicked you out for being an annoyance weeks before you left! Glob, even Bonnibel whines less than you did. You were insufferable, you miserable.."

This continued for several minutes, to everyone's amusement, until a knock was heard at the door. Finn went and answered it, and promptly let in Peppermint Butler, who appeared much less in pieces than he did in the aftermath of the battle the afternoon previous. He took a look at the scene before him, Marceline standing on the table over Evan with her hands around his neck, frozen at the presence of the castle's head butler. At his raised eyebrow, everyone calmed down and Evan stood to face the diminutive candy. "General Pepper, Its good to see you well sir."

Everyone stopped at that and turned to stare at Peppermint Butler, who merely nodded up towards the much taller man. "Not much more than a few bumps and bruises young man. And may I commend you on your exemplary performance yesterday as well. I daresay we would have been hard pressed to prevail, though I do not doubt our hero would have led us to victory." and with that, he turned to a stunned Finn and regarded him seriously. 'Finn, you are also to be commended. Your skills on the battlefield have yet again helped keep our kingdom, and all of Ooo safe. Also I want to personally thank you for training the Princess as you have. It was your instruction that not only helped keep her head, but also allowed her to defend herself when it was dearly necessary. And for that, I thank you." And with that, he have him a slight bow, and then turned and greeted Marceline. "It is good you are here as well Marceline. I trust your trip back to your realm was met with eventual success?" Marceline nodded in thanks, while Finn looked on in confusion. Since when did Peppermint Butler act like this? He then expressed greetings to Beemo, Ruby and Jake as well. Then he turned back to the room and said to everyone. "I am here, of course, to bring a message from Princess Bubblegum. She wished to express her thanks again as well for your valiant efforts yesterday, and wishes to apologize for sending you off so quickly after the completion of the battle. She wishes to invite you to the castle tomorrow evening for a dinner and official meeting of all the heads of state in the realm of Ooo. Of course, everyone here is invited, and the Princess expresses her personal desire to see all of you there a bit earlier, as she has things to discuss with you all beforehand. Will you all be able to attend?" Receiving affirmatives from everyone, he continued "Then I must take my leave from you now, as I have several others I must contact before the day is through. Thank you all again for your efforts, and may you rest well tonight. With that, he turned, walked past Jake, stepped up to a corner of the treehouse, and simply vanished, leaving a stunned group behind. After a moment, a smirking Evan said out loud, "Well, anyone have a hankerin for some dessert?"

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

Several hours later, after the rest of the conversation had died down, Flame Princess had actually gone home to help her father prepare for the meeting (which he apparently was invited to as well) and Finn and Jake had turned in to get a good nights sleep, Marceline took to the night air to head back to her cave. She felt much better than she had that morning, between the fight (which was, just as Evan had said, rather invigorating; fighting without the intention of actually causing perma-death usually is) and the friends (new and old) she felt like a new ageless vampire. Floating to a stop, she walked up the stairway, halted for a moment in front of the door, then opened it and walked inside. Dropping her bag on the floor, she stepped flipped on a light in the living room, kicked off her shoes, and floated into the kitchen. She headed over to the kitchen and grabbed a mug from the pantry, and closed the pantry door, saying "You know, not having a heartbeat makes it pretty easy for me to tell that I'm not the only one here, no matter how quiet you are trying to be."

Evan smiled from his seat at the kitchen table, and replied "put the coffee mug away. Ive got something better tonight." and with that he took out from his bag a large decanter, filled with an amber liquid. She eyed the bottle suspiciously.

"What did you pick up while you were out wandering then?"

"Given the description I was given when I picked it up," He said, twisting off the top and pouring a bit in two glasses. "I think its probably close to what used to be tequila."

Marceline made a non-committal grunt and settled down in the other chair, "Surprised something like this still exists out there."

"You'll be surprised by a lot of things then. A few caches of the old world have been found, they picked up quite a few things from it..."

Marceline saw the look in his eyes and nodded. She reached for the glass, but Evan placed a hand over it, shaking his head. He took his hand away for a moment and reached into his pocket and withdrew a small knife, opening the blade, he passed it gently over his fingers, drawing a thin cut which quickly started to bleed. Marceline's eyes widened, and she leaned forward, gently inhaling the scent of blood, but Evan quickly put his hand out to stop her.

"ah ah ah." She sat back and frowned at him, but he grinned, then used his thumb to squeeze a few drops of blood into one of the glasses. He then wrapped his finger in a small bandage, and slid the drink over in front of Marceline, who picked up the glass and held it up, the red of the blood slowly flowing through the drink, She smiled at it, then threw back the whole thing in one gulp. She sat there for a moment savoring the burn of the alcohol mixed with the euphoric tingle that always rushed through her when she consumed blood, a small smile on her face.

"I haven't enjoyed anything like that in a long time."

Evan raised an eyebrow at this, having downed his own drink as well. "What, I thought you had enough liquor to last through to the next millennia."

"Yeah well that got drank up quick enough. Didn't last as long as I expected when I had a roommate who enjoyed inviting all his friends over."

At this, Evan's smirk came back in full force, and his tone matched. "Ah, yes. And how is Ash anyways? I cant recall seeing him so far on this little trip? He actually have a job now?"

Marceline rolled her eyes at his question "Not this again. Look, he was a jerk, alright? I don't know what I saw in him, but back then I did, alright? He's gone now, jerk sold Hambo and I kicked him in the nuts. Haven't seen him for years, actually."

"Now that is something I would have paid to see. All I can say is I warned you about him."

Marceline didn't take kindly to opening this old wound. She stood up and leaned up over the table, her anger clearly written on her face. "Warned me? Please, you were supposed to be a friend, and you were barely there. You kept going off to do things for Bonnibel's mummy and daddy. You kept not showing up when you said you wanted to hang out. If anything, you should be here begging my forgiveness."

Evan stood up to meet her leaning over the table and meeting her angry glare. "You know that I had no choice Marceline. You know what we were up against, what I was preparing for. The Queen could not be denied-"

"Oh yes. the mighty queen could not be denied her weapon."

"I owed her that much at least Marceline."

"You owed her? Well what about what you owed me, huh? You promised you would owe me, you broke that promise."

The whole table shook as Evan smashed his fist on it. "Dammit Marceline, you know I keep my promises. I had to leave. You know I did, you know I hated it, but I went anyway. I told you I would come back."

"Yeah, you came back. The mighty tool, here to do the Princess' bidding. Well you know what? Go. Do what you came here to do. I don't really care." And with that, she turned to head upstairs, telling him clearly enough that the conversation was over.

Evan wasn't finished yet though.

"Marcie!"

She turned around prepared to lay into him again, only to have to reach up and catch a blur as he threw something towards her. She looked at what he had thrown at her, and nearly dropped it. One of the eyes had been replaced again, and she wasn't sure if the right leg was even the same leg. It was dirty, and worn, but it was still unmistakable to her. This was Hambo, her Hambo. She looked up to see him at the door, on his way out. He stopped at the doorway and said to her, without turning around.

"By the time I left, I really only had one reason left to stay. That reason was you. And I almost did. And when I was out there, you were the only reason I wanted to come back. I came back to see you."

And with that, he left.

== 00 OO - OO 00 ==

A/N: another chapter come and gone, this one mostly Marceline and Evan focused, and was surprisingly easy to write. This story is just flowing along in my head for now, lets hope it stays that way. The next chapter will have a lot more Finn, and the story moves further along. Hope y'all enjoy. As always, questions, comments, suggestions, et cetera are always appreciated.

/EF/


End file.
